Wii U price: 'We think $299 is really strong value' - Fils-Aime

Wii U release dates and pricing were blown wide open by Nintendo yesterday, and Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime has spilled the beans on why he feels Nintendo's price is right.

In an interview with GI.biz, Fils-Aime discussed the decisions that led to Wii U's final pricing.

"The way that we approach consumer value is we want to make sure we give the consumer a lot for what they pay," he said, "and when you look at that basic model you get the innovation in the GamePad - and all of the gaming options that presents - you get Miiverse in terms of a gaming community, you get Nintendo TVii, you get video chat...all of that is included in the base proposition. We think $299 is a really strong value, and it's a value that's going to be strong for a long time."

Fils-Aime also stressed that pricing then re-pricing consoles like Nintendo did with 3DS shortly after it launched isn't a habit the companyw ants to get into, "we don't believe in pricing a product and then having to reduce the price some short time later. When we had to do that for 3DS, it was a very painful proposition for us."

"And what we did with the Wii at $249 and leaving it there for, I think, about three and a half years is very much consistent with our pricing philosophy."

Fils-Aime concluded, "In terms of profitability, we don't comment on our internal byproduct P&L, but as a philosophy, we believe in making money on our hardware, even if it's small amounts of money at the start."

"We don't believe in losing a lot of money on hardware. I brought up 3DS - after the price cut, we were losing money on 3DS hardware and that's what led to our posting our first operating loss ever as a public company."

Thanks again GI.biz.